Hey everyone,
after my last update in Melaka I decided it was too hot and humid to trudge all over town looking in my guide book trying to see 'the sights'. Instead I decided to hire a totally blinged out bollywood style trishaw and a guide ( an adorable old guy called 'Cowboy') to take me on a tour of Melaka's sights. Everywhere you walk in Melaka the trishaws follow you about asking if you want a ride and blasting a mixture of asian, indian and western pop music, and they are all covered in lights, flowers, statues and pictures. It's something you really have to see to understand just how tacky and amusing it is. Cowboy took me to all kinds of mosques, temples, historic sights, top notch local food places ( the kind you would cross the street to avoid if you were not with a local) and explained all kinds of social and cultural things to me. Perfect way to see the city, learn some things and keep from fading in the heat :)
I left Melaka and headed north to Georgetown, on the island of Penang off the north west coast. Hmmmmmmm Penang was a bit of a dud... but if I'd had a bit more time and been able to go to the island of Langkaowi I may have been more impressed.
Maybe this negative attitude started because my train from KL was late leaving, so I didn't actually arrive in Georgetown until 11:30pm. I met some other backpackers on the train/ferry to the island and we decided to go searching for a place to stay together. While we quickly found a hostel with dorm beds avaliable, the hostel manager ( who as far as I could tell was not actually working at the time and was very very drunk) spent a lot of time trying to convince us to stay ( even though we had already decided to stay and had paid for our beds) and promoting the fact that the hostel had, ' most fresh quality toilet'. All of this was fine, infact it was pretty amusing. Waking up at 2am to realise that there were bed bugs in my bed was not fine! This all happened over a week ago and I am fine, but at the time I was suitably horrified.
The beaches in Penang were nowhere near as good as the east coast beaches in Malaysia and they were drowning in huge expensive resorts and hotels. Most of the tourists there were either weathly Chinese business men or wealthy Middle Eastern families. I snuck myself into one of these fancy resorts one afternoon to use the pool, and despite the fact that I was clearly a scummy backpacker sneaking in to use the pool... I was tolerated. In short, don't bother with Penang unless you have time to go to Langkaowi... it's too hot and your time will be better spent on the east coast of Malaysia.
After a quick bus ride back to KL, I was in familiar territory and able to go check out the few sights and attractions that I missed on my first visit. Petronas Towers is pretty impressive, and the park attached is beautiful. I did spend a lot of time giggling at all the tourists taking pictures of themselves and trying to fit the towers in the background. And then I did the same thing ;) Next morning I headed to the airport and caught a flight to Krabi in Thailand.
I had heard from other divers I met in Malaysia, that it is better to do your dive course in Koh Phi Phi than in Krabi itself, so as soon as I arrived I hopped onto a ferry across to the island of Koh Phi Phi. I've started my dive course here and I am sooooo glad I made that decision. The island is beautiful, the dive instructor I have is great ( Eric from Brazil) and every night on the island is a party. The last two nights have been pretty full on because it has been the full moon party. It's not as big as Koh Panang ... but it's still a great time :)
So tomorrow I head out for my first proper open water dives and Eric assures me that we WILL see turtles, sharks, cuttlefish and amazing coral. Then there is the chance that we will see octopus, dolphins and whale sharks. Fingers crossed.
This island is so beautiful and so much fun that I could see myself staying for way too long and becoming ' a hippie backpacker' ;) BUT, my big sister Stiena is arriving in Phuket on Friday to spend a week on the beach, diving and lazing about, so rest assured I won't get lost on Koh Phi Phi.
Having a blast! xox luv Nads
